Sir,
I shall be much obliged if you kindly publish this letter in your widely circulated paper.
In recent years, Manipur is regarded as one of the strong footballing states of India with large number of talents. Manipur has produced around 200 international football professional. At present, a good number of footballers from this tiny state are playing for many big clubs all over the Indian Sub-continent including, East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Md. Sporting Union, Air India, Services, Churchil Brothers, etc, earning fabulous income. Manipur women players have complete domination in the country comparing to the male counterparts. Manipur is also one of the few states in India which is successfully conducting professional football league i.e. Manipur state league since 2006. And it has completed 5th edition of Manipur state league. And who can forget one of the high points in the history of Manipur football, winning 58th edition Santosh trophy in the year 2002. It is a great achievement for All Manipur Football Association(AMFA) which boast itself of being one of the most successful and well organised state level sports organisation in the state as well as in the entire North Eastern States with its office fully computerised with permanent staff and other modern amenities like Fax machines, telephones with STD lines etc.
Twenty-one teams is participating in the Second Division League, ongoing from 27th March 2011. North Imphal Sporting Association (NISA) is being grouped together with United Sikkim(Sikkim), Langsing SC(Meghalaya), Gauhati Town Club(Assam), Southern Samity(West Bengal), Golden Threads(Kerala) and Simla Youngs(Himachal Pradesh). NISA has won first 2 games of their group. I wish them all the success throughout the competition.
What I don’t understand is that only one team from Manipur is participating in the Second Division League competition whereas Meghalaya has got 6 teams in the competition. How are these team selected? Are we lagging behind from some of the North-Eastern states? What have Manipur’s Men football team achieved since the triumph of 58th Santosh trophy? These are some questions(out of many) that many football fans of the state would like to know from AMFA or concerned people.
Through your medium, I would like to make a request to AMFA to open an official websites of AMFA disseminating information and awareness of various activities of state football. And I would like to request your esteemed paper to carry out an article of all the big clubs of Manipur for mass outreach.
Yours faithfully,
Gouramangi Namoijam,
Football fans,
Kolkatta, West Bengal
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